COUNTRY LIFE
THERE is perhaps no bit of water in the South, not even the Tring reservoirs, which is so well and fondly known as the Frensham Pond, the eighty acres of it. Early in the war it was emptied to deprive hostile airmen of a guide-post. It is now being filled again, and both naturalists and local bathers began to look forward to its use and beauty and the return of the rare birds which it always attracted. Even the osprey has been seen there. Now Eric Parker, who is not only a naturalist but the historian of Surrey, avers (in the Guardian) that an Urban District Council (which must be urban indeed) intends to erect sewage works beside it and decant the effluent into the lake. Haslemere is following, it seems, the example of Luton, which has destroyed virtually. all life in the Lea. Such pieces of water, such playgrounds, such liver valleys are worth a deal more t ven than the National Parks, which enjoy much publicity. Preservation of natural features, especially of the purity of waters, is a higher duty than the organising of facilities for access.
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